The Mannings On Fatherhood

Football's Royal Fam - Eli And Archie Manning - Talks About The Meaning Of Family

The Mannings are arguably the greatest football family in the history of the game. All three were first-round picks, each have played in two Pro Bowls and the two sons, Eli and Peyton, have combined for three Super Bowl rings. So on father’s day, who better to talk to than a dad with great genes and one of his boys?

We caught up with Archie and Eli to chat about lessons from dad, being a good father, and to hear why Eli decided on a Gillette Shave Club Father’s Day gift for his dad (hint: Eli’s excellent at quarterbacking for the New York Giants but struggles with homemade Father’s Day cards).

AskMen: Eli, what are some of the most important lessons your dad has taught you?

Eli Manning: Growing up, one of the things that he talked about was not doing anything halfway. That meant that whatever you decide to do or whatever you commit to doing, go do it. There’s no giving up if it’s tough. Just grind through it. Be totally focused on it, be committed to whatever you’re doing. That’s something I’ve taken to heart and tried to do with whatever activities I take up.

AM: And Archie, as a dad, what do you think is the most important thing you’ve taught Eli?

Archie Manning: With Eli — and all of my sons — I wanted to impress that as they grow older, they are going to have important decisions to make and at decision time, you can’t be 100% perfect, but try to evaluate things and do what’s right. If you just make every effort to do the right thing, you’ll come out ok. It comes down to priorities and making good decisions.

AM: What are some of your favorite father-son activities just the two of you — without Peyton or Cooper?

AM: One of my favorite things is hanging out with Eli and Abby, and their three little girls. This year, me and my wife Olivia are going to be up there in the New York area for Father’s Day, so that’s exciting for us.

It’s hard to get my whole crew together all in one place in one time with Peyton and his family in Denver and my oldest son in New Orleans, so everybody is moving around but we’re excited to be here this year.

AM: Archie, can you contrast the challenges and/or differences you’ve had with your three boys and just the lessons you’ve had to teach them?

AM: That’s the one thing before parenthood that no one really impressed upon me, that all of my children would be so different. For some reason, I missed that. So I learned it — and that’s a good thing — but in a way it caught me by surprise. Each child is a little different and each situation has to be handled a little different but all in all, we’re very fortunate. I have a great wife — for 44 years — and she’s certainly a huge part of bringing these boys up. We’ve been really blessed and I don’t take anything for granted.

AM: What’s the toughest father-son conversation to have?

EM: That’s a tough question.

AM: You know Dave, I don’t know that there’s just one but I think it’s just when you have a hiccup along the way, who knows — it might be when you’re 10 and you did something wrong, you might have taken something that’s not yours or you may have been ugly to someone. Or it might be when you’re 19 and you’re off in college and you had a bad experience, as one can have. There are all sorts of challenging conversations as a parent and it’s never easy.

I think the main thing is trying to be fair, sometimes there has to be a little bit of discipline, maybe even punishment involved in trying to make your child understand, learn from bad experiences and make sure they don’t happen again.

AM: On the topic of discipline, it seems like there’s a very fine line with parenting these days where if you’re too soft and too giving, there’s the concern that you’re coddling and that your child might grow up with a lack of appreciation and a lack of boundaries. At the same time, doing the Tom Coughlin tough-love approach is frowned upon. How do you find that happy medium?

EM: That’s what I’m learning right now. My oldest is four, I have a two-year-old and a five-month old. Obviously, you want to teach your child between right and wrong, respect and being kind to others, whether it’s their sisters or parents. You try to teach them by example, talk to them and explain certain situations. But there’s also a time to put them in time out or let them know they’ve made a mistake and try to learn from it.